


White Braids

by salamanderfantasy



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Bismuth Redemption, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Family Fluff, Hair Braiding, Jasper Redemption (Steven Universe), Movie Night, One Shot, Quartz Sisters, trump became president halfway through writing this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-11
Updated: 2016-11-11
Packaged: 2018-08-29 01:17:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8470114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salamanderfantasy/pseuds/salamanderfantasy
Summary: A nice pair of girlfriends watch some movies with their son and braid some mess hair.





	

A quartz's hair is very important to them, generally. A young quartz is formed with short hair; long haired quartzes have seen the battlefield and been hardened by war. They've lost battles and reformed their bodies but came back  _stronger._ They've learnt things. New ways to fight. How to curl their bodies over and spin forward in a knot. Some can even channel the power in their weapons, setting them ablaze in coloured fire then spinning with the strands of their hair coated in fire. It's usually long and pale, tinted with the colour of their gem. Many take great pride in their long hair. But Amethyst never learnt what traditionally things were supposed to be like and Jasper is trying to abandon her old ways. She's mostly kept it that way for practicality; she's very fond of the spin attack. Amethyst is too. But with everything being said, neither take many much care for it. Not like Rose, always neat and curly. It's not in Amethyst's nature to be tidy, so it's always tangles and streaked with mud or food. Amethyst just rolls with it. If the dirt gets too bad she'll jump in the ocean or something, but usually she'll have jumped in the ocean for some reason anyway. Jasper doesn't take much care either. Some soldiers would. Some would male little adjustments to their forms or colour their faces with pigments or twist their hair in certain ways. She always thought of this as wrong. That wasn't how quartzes were supposed to look. She only changed from a short haired freshly-formed Jasper with a pink diamond on her leotard to long haired with a yellow. Now she just had a black patch where the diamond was. She was warming up to the earth and the "Crystal Gem" way of thinking.

Take what was happening now. There was Amethyst. By Homeworld standards she should be nothing but shards now. But the very thought of that repulsed Jasper. She'd even let herself call Amethyst a _sister_. A human term for human relationships she was using for another gem. And she was with Steven who again would never exist watching a human "movie" of humans, made by humans pretending to be other humans and eating human food. And she enjoyed it. She like being with Steven and Amethyst. The movie was entertaining and she even laughed at the jokes and felt bad when things went wrong for the humans. She wouldn't even find anything off-putting about her relationship with Pearl now. A traditional servant and warrior in a romance. Two different kinds of gems, neither of which were typically supposed to be in any relationship. There Pearl was, lying on the bed above Amethyst with her arms crossed and her head lying down on Amethyst's own head. If she was in Steven's place they'd be holding hands or cuddling or something. They often were. Not that Jasper could say anything about it, mind. She was holding Bismuth's hand right now, with Bismuth lying on the bed above her. Left arm drooped over her left shoulder and both holding right hands. Chatting to each over, or Steven, or to Pearl or Amethyst. Jasper was happy just being here.

"Shhh! SHHH!" Steven spoke through a mouthful of popcorn, pointing to the screen. "He's confronting his rival!" Jasper stared at the screen. There was a human speaking to another. Steven had said "he" so she assumed the other was female. The thought of gender was confusing to her, being a sexless polymorphic sentient rock. Gems were just "she" or "they".  
  
"What's his rival...Rivalling him for? What's the point of them...competitively throwing round objects?" Human interactions were odd.

"It's a sport, like sparring but with less violence but it's important because they're really just fighting to avoid the fact they're in love I mean it's really cute but they spent a lot of time together before the jello incedent and actuallystillreallycareabouteachoverbutshhhhhhh!!" There was a short scene that involved a lot of face-mashing (Steven had told her about kissing but Jasper preferred the term Amethyst had told her) then once the scene was over. Strange. "You guys can talk now."

"Why is it so many human works just turn out to be a complicated sequence of event to throw a pair of male and felamle humans together..." Pearl mummered into Amethyst's hair, who half-snorted half-laughed.

"Because it's cuuuteee you guys."

"Hmm." Pearl was running her hands through Amethyst's hair, pulling on the knots. Amethyst looked annoyed.

"Dude, ouuchhh!"

"How on earth could you let it get this messy?"

"Uh, because I don't own a hairbrush."

"Let me brush it?"

"Ugh, fine. Only because you're my girlfriend." Pearl crawled back over the bed and pulled a brush off of Steven's dressing table. It was in good shape. Jasper could recall last week when she'd seen Steven trying to put his hair into a ponytail. It wasn't long enough. She crawled back over. There were a number of hair ties wrapped around the handle of the brush. Jasper watched as Pearl roughly tugged through Amethyst's hair as she winced, then set to splitting in into sections and gently brushing in long strokes. Amethyst was happier with her girlfriend brushing her hair now.

Bismuth felt a hand gently tap her shoulder and looked up to Bismuth looking at her, propped up on one hand. She blushed.

"Don't think I didn't seeya starin', princess. Want me to brush your hair?"

"Um."

"Takin' that as a yes. Hey Steven! Got any other brushes in this house?"

"There's another in the bathroom, if you want."

"Gotcha. Hang on a moment." She was gone for a moment. Jasper took a handful of popcorn into her hand, then into her mouth. Chewing was strange at first but she'd gotten used to it. She liked eating. It was pleasant having something hot and solid inside her. Jasper look over again. Pearl was hardly halfway through Amethyst's hair. Then Bismuth came back, with the brush and for some reason a spool of red thread. "Okay if use this Steven?"

"No, I don't mind. But don't make too much noise please Connie saidthatthesoundtrackisreallygoodheresshhh!"

"Lean back and lift up your hair, princess." Bismuth whispered. Jasper did that and felt the brush begin at the bottom of her hair, gentle. It wasn't often in her old life when she would feel gentle touches. It had changed once she'd been with Bismuth though.

"Pearl, I'm going do the thing. Remember when I had half the army linin' up for me to braid their hair?"

"Oh, I remember that! You even had those three rubies!"

"Lemme tell ya how hard it is to braid a rubies' hair. It's like...constant squareness. But seriously these guys were so excited I had to do something for 'em. So I-"

"You taught them the little headband trick!"

Steven piped in "Even our ruby does that!"

"Yeah, and you know what? Some time's they'd even reform with hair like mine!"

Jasper just lay back and let herself be happy with her girlfriend brushing her hair. Amethyst was doing the same. She loved how gentle Bismuth could be, even to someone who was on the opposite end of a war thousands of years ago. She concentrated on her. Large hands running through her hair. Gentle tugs. Complimenting her hair. Bismuth was the first person to call Jasper pretty and she liked it. She'd never been allowed to be pretty before. 

Next to her Pearl had begun to twist Amethyst's hair into a fat plait. Strands of hair kept escaping the plait. Pearl tucked them back in. They fell out again. And again. Finally she just contented herself to a messy braid.

Now Jasper could feel her own hair being twisted into shape. Three small strands on one side. She tried to lean over to see what was happening, only to have Bismuth push her back down gently. 

"Don't make me mess it up now, princess." She kissed the top of Jasper's head and continued. After a moment Jasper heard the sound of thread snapping, then slight movements to the tiny braid, then three new strands being selected and worked on. And the process was repeated, several times. Jasper started to get bored.

"Ugh, how long is this going to take?"

"Patience, princess. It'll look real special when it's done, promise. Okay?"

"Fine."

Amethyst spoke up. "Just chilllll, sis. Relax. Watch this dumb film."

"Easy for you to say; your hair is already done!"

"Just chiiillllll."

"Wha-"

"Chilllllllll."

"Why do you-"

"Chillllllll."

"Sto-"

"CHILLLLLLL."

"Fine."

Jasper leant back so her head was resting against Bismuth's crossed legs. She'd done about...17 small braids. How many was she planning to do? The film ended. Jasper wasn't sure what happened but it looked like the main human's team had won from the amount of cheering. Steven was crying a little bit. Pearl still looked annoyed. The next film was pretty much as confusing. Jasper shut that out. She preferred the ones with fast moving and explosions so stopped paying attention. Just concentrated on the big gentle hands. Halfway through her hair now. She probally intended to braid the whole thing.

Steven started talking. "Um... Pearl?" he questioned.

"Yes, Steven?"

"Could... could you show me how to braid hair?"

"Well...I suppose so...as long as we don't run a repeat of that time you wanted to try fencing. But why?"

"Yeah, Ste-man. Ya hair's too short and like ,curly 'n stuff."

"Um...Connie sometimes has trouble putting up her hairyouknowbecauseit'sreallylongAND-"

"Ok chill bro."

"Don't start that again!"

"Ok chill 'sis,"

"NO-"

"CHILLLLLLLLL-"

"Don't start this again you two!"

"Fiiiiiiiiinnnneee."

"How come you listen to _her_ and not to me!"

("Steven, here. Sit on the bed so you'll have a better view.")

"'Cuz she's my giirrlllfrienndd. Gotta listen to ya girl. Or else she-GAH!"

"Or else the girlfriend will refrain from using mercy when using _her_ girlfriend as a model to teach Steven how to braid hair. Now see Steven, first you separate the section you want to braid into three _even_ strands. See how I fold the side strands over the middle in turns for left and right?"

"P, how many braids you plannin' on putting in my head today?"

"Just this one, then Steven can try."

Pearl remade the braid in Amethyst's hair several times, with Steven watching closely. Then she left it in, half of Amethyst's hair in one thick rope. Steven tried. At first the braid fell apart. Lose strands would stick out and the entire thing would unfurl. Then it would stay in shape but still lopsided and loose. Then he tried a few more times and the end result was a tight braid with only a few flyaway hairs. Steven looked proud. Unexpectedly Bismuth spoke next, after staying in silent concentration for over half an hour.

"Just a few more annnnddd..." Snap. Twist. "Fancy new haircut for ma' girl" Jasper sat up, rolling her head around to release the stiffness. She felt her head. The entire mass of her hair had been braided; an impressive feat for...the whole spool of thread. "Wanna...take a look at it yourself?"

"Defiantly."

Jasper saw herself in the bathroom mirror. The teal scars across her arms. And her great mane of hair. Braided, close to her skull. Long thin braids that ran down her back.

"It's...like yours."

"You look beautiful." Bismuth came up behind Jasper and lifted the delicately crafted braids from her shoulder. She kissed her neck.

"I think...I like it. It's like yours. It's hard to not like anything close to you."

"Same for me, princess."

 

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly just procrastinating on the long fic. But eh, take some fluff while I struggle with writing angst. Also if you want some good quality gayTM go to Moesartblog on tumblr they draw quite a bit of good quality gay jaspmuth.


End file.
